Villa de Leyva, Boyacá

   

Villa de Leyva's immense cobblestone square

Villa de Leyva, 3 hours north of Bogota and often cited as a rival to Barichara as the most beautiful colonial town in Colombia, was our next stop.  We had booked a hotel/hostel here for 5 nights, as we've decided that moving every couple of days is a) knackering and b) we don't get the chance to get under the skin of a place.  When we travelled long-term 13 years ago (where on earth does the time go?) we never booked anywhere in advance, as the Internet was not as ubiquitous as it is now and it was fun to turn up and find a place when we arrived.  Now, booking.com, hostelworld, Airbnb and suchlike mean that, for popular places, there's a chance that everywhere decent has been fully booked online.  The downside of booking in advance is that you haven't actually seen the place and reviews are, of course, subjective.  So, arriving in Villa de Leyva in the late afternoon, we turned up at our accommodation and our hearts sank.  It was dark, forbidding, shabby and resembled a prison block.  The area it was located in was dead dodgy, too.  Again, such a shame, as the only member of staff was so lovely and worked punishingly long hours, with a smile.   We stayed 2 nights, then found a more expensive, but much better hotel nearer the centre of town, having to make an excuse as to why we were leaving our original accommodation sooner than expected, so that we could be given a refund.  

                               

The 'minibar' in our first hostel/hotel....bless

So, Villa de Leyva, with its huge cobblestone square (glad I left my Manolos at home) and quaint narrow streets, was great for a few days.  Sebe was staying in a hostel nearby and joined us for hikes and food and introduced us to some other young Swiss travellers, who were good fun, too.

5 of us hiked one afternoon to the Christ statue at the top of a challenging hill.

      

View from the hill over Villa de Leyva

      

Made it!

                                      

     

Dusk falling as we headed down.... 

     

Just made it before it was pitch dark, the views are spectacular from Villa de Leyva

We heard that there was a good market on Thursdays and Saturdays.  We love a local market and this one was great, loads of great, fresh produce, plus the usual welly boot, nylon blanket and cooking pot stalls.  For such a popular place, especially at the weekends, when the Bogotanians flood in, the market was refreshingly untouristy.

     

Spring onions at the Saturday market

      

Colourful hand-woven chairs and stools - just like the one in our room in Mompox

       

Pink peppercorns grown in the hills and brought to the market for sale

    

Juicy locally grown blackberries and strawberries

       

Great fruit and veg - but we don't have use of a kitchen, drat!  (Check the spiky guayabanas - absolutely delicious)

                                         

All you need is LUV

      

Parade in the square to commemorate the birth of a local hero

       

One morning, on our way to eat breakfast, the sound of drums reverberated around the square, followed by scores of schoolchildren marching over the cobbles.  All the schools must have been there, from young ones to teenagers, the older they were the sulkier their expressions - it's not cool to march in public to military music!  The funniest bit was that the local dogs joined in, trotting around with the kids.

Villa de Leyva has it all.  For such a small town, with under 10,000 inhabitants, it punches way above its weight, with beautiful architecture, paleontological and other museums, artisan shops, a range of gastronomic opportunities from local cafes to posh French restaurants to chocolatiers and good coffee shops.  As Anna's stomach problems had resurfaced (aaaaargh!) we opted for a very European looking pizza restaurant, Santa Lucia, which also sold home-made gelatos.  Not our usual choice - we like to try the local places, as far as possible within vegetarian limits.  The pizza was superb, a thin crust, topped with veggies including artichoke hearts!  We went back here several times and the gelato was sublime; among the best we've ever tasted (and believe me, I've tasted a whole lot of ice-cream in my time!).  Probably not the best for someone with gastro problems, but what the heck?  Damned if I do, damned if I don't.   Our joint favourites were fruits of the forest, teeming with berries; and coconut, complete with delicious chewy coco strands.  We tried several other flavours (we didn't go for the avocado, though), but came back to these two.  We became very well known by the very friendly Colombian owner couple during our few days in the town.

                                 

                                 

     

      

In the Casa Museo de Luis Alberto Acuña, one of several museums in Villa de Leyva

So, the time came for our hijo viajero, Sebastian, to leave us.  We'd been travelling together, on and off, since Salento.  We went to the bus station to see him off, and it was very sad to see him go, on his way to Nicaragua, then Mexico, before returning home to Switzerland. Will miss him!

   

Sebastian and Mara, in Barichara: 'But I don't like dogs!'

But, given our mutual love of travel, chances are we'll meet again.

Next post: Back to Bogota